A group of Air Force troops marches up Fifth Avenue yesterday with the Empire State Building looming in the background during the city’s annual Veterans Day Parade. Scott Winkler , a wheelchair-bound Iraq war vet, joins in the procession, while Fiona Micheline waves a mini Old Glory at her curbside seat under the barricades. Flag-waving New Yorkers lined barricades on every one of the 30 blocks of the city’s Veterans Day Parade yesterday, as one of the largest crowds in recent years came to say a personal thank-you to those who serve their country.

“This is the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen for the last seven years for this parade,” said Mayor Bloomberg, who has marched every year he’s been in office.

“I don’t know whether it’s greater appreciation, more patriotism, maybe some combination of that,” said Bloomberg, who placed a wreath at the Eternal Light Monument in Madison Square Park.

Some along the route held signs – including one that read “Land of the Free Because of the Brave” as active-duty military, veterans groups, marching bands and floats made their way up Fifth Avenue from 24th Street to 56th Street.

Iraq war vet Scott Winkler, 35, who was paralyzed below the waist and uses a wheelchair, said it was an honor to join in the parade.

“Freedom isn’t free. Someone has to secure it for our great nation,” said Winkler, of Georgia, who finished fifth in the shot put at the Beijing Paralympic Games in September.

Ralph Rocco, 83, a World War II Marine sergeant who stood along the route, said that to him, the holiday means “getting all our veterans together and celebrating all the ones who are still here and honoring the ones who aren’t.”

Richard Weigele, 57, of Long Island, said he took a day off from work so he could attend because “Veterans Day is probably the most important day of the year, the best parade of the year.”